Radar

Radar

November 06, 1997|By SUSAN FRIEND Daily Press

WORTH EVERY CENT TO HIM. NN Del. Alan Diamonstein - always Mr. Smooth, but usually with a guarded facade - turned downright giddy Tuesday night once the voters made him the victor in the hardest-fought battle of his career. Plus, he looked years younger than he did just last week. ``I would have won by 10,000 votes if I had bought billboards,'' he bragged, hugging his diminutive campaign manager, Melissa Watson . ``She wouldn't let me buy billboards,'' he added, a jocular but pointed reference to the fact that opponent Allen Face did buy billboards. Watson didn't give an inch, though. ``I can think of a lot better things than billboards to spend almost half a million dollars on - like me,'' she joked back at her boss, who had already moved on to the next well-wisher. In what turned out to be a good omen, Diamonstein and his wife, Beverly , celebrated their 25th anniversary a week earlier.

TRY, TRY AGAIN? On Election Night, NN's Allen Face , the Republican challenger who has lost twice to powerhouse Del. Alan Diamonstein - was talking about '99 and possible run No. 3. Who knows? Maybe his luck would change. One of the country's highest officeholders - Abraham Lincoln - lost on his first two runs for the Illinois House. And here in Virginia, Republican Minority Leader Vance Wilkins - a delegate from Amherst - didn't win election to the House until his third try.

GOP GAINS. Along with Gov. George Allen 's big victory four years ago, the GOP also picked up six seats in the House of Delegates. On Tuesday, led by the party's historic sweep of the top three offices, Republicans added two more House seats. So far, though, control of the chamber remains elusive. The numbers stand at 51 Democrats, 48 Republicans and one independent. But the Dems are holding one of those 51 seats by an eight-vote thread that could change in a recount. And other changes could be coming, too: GOP Del. Randy Forbes is sure to run for the Senate seat held by Attorney General-elect Mark Earley . That could mean a special election for Forbes' seat.

CASE CONNECTIONS. Hampton Commonwealth's Attorney Linda Curtis was at Fox Hill Precinct Tuesday afternoon when she ran into a juror from the murder trial of Dana Holloman . Holloman was convicted in July of the 1995 death of Kymberli Martin-Richardson . The woman juror - with whom Curtis had a brief but friendly chat - obviously didn't hold the length of the four-day trial against the prosecutor. But John Allen , who ran against Curtis, did get some help from Martin-Richardson's cousin, Brian Woolfolk . Woolfolk, speaking for the family, had been critical about how long it took to bring the case to trial. Curtis, the victor in a close contest against Allen last year, won easily Tuesday.

WHERE'S HOWARD? NN Commonwealth's Attorney Howard Gwynn was unopposed in Tuesday's election, so the fact that his name was left off sample Democratic ballots wasn't the catastrophe it might have been. Word is the omission was purely accidental. Still, it makes one wonder, since a couple of years back, NN Dems were in a tiff because Gwynn was co-chair - along with former NN Mayor Barry DuVal - of the re-election campaign for NN Clerk of Court Rex Davis . DuVal and Davis are big Republicans. Another ballot mistake: It was dated 1996.

AN EARLY START. Remember this name: Shane Matthews . You may be voting for him someday. The 9-year-old was campaigning Tuesday for his grandmother, Martha Scott Lequeux , a candidate for Mathews supervisors. Although ``Grandma'' came in third for the two seats available, it wasn't for Shane's lack of trying. School was closed for the election, and the fourth-grader was glad-handing everyone at the Westville Precinct, keeping up a snappy patter that would do any politician proud. Shane says he wants to be an astronaut or a storm-chaser. How about president? Nah, probably too tame.